Donald Trump Rally: Whining About the Media and Other Red Meat for His Base

Watching President Trump’s 100-day rally was like stepping into a time machine and going back to Trump’s general election campaign. If you managed to see any of campaign rallies, you didn’t miss much last night.

Trump was best at being Trump. He savaged the media, bragged about his executive order-laden 100 days, and sneered at those who aren’t on board with him (I supposed that’s the nearly 60% of Americans who disapprove of his job performance).

Naturally, Trump attacked his favorite media targets such as the NY Times and CNN. He said:

“Their priorities are not my priorities, and not your priorities. If the media’s job is to be honest and tell the truth, the media deserves a very, very big fat failing grade.”

He also called them “very dishonest people” which strikes me as strange. If they’re so “dishonest” why would President Trump sit down with Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush of the NY Times for an interview?

Trump further insulted the NY Times, saying they’re “totally failing” as well as making fun of their office location call it a “very ugly office building in a very crummy location.” He also said the following about the NY Times coverage of his campaign:

“They covered it so badly that they felt they were forced to apologize because their predictions were so bad.”

His statement is nonsense. The NY Times never apologized for any of their campaign coverage.

When the President mentioned CNN and MSNBC, it was followed by the crowd chanting, “CNN sucks!.”

President Trump also bragged about the executive orders he signed, pretending as though it solidifies him as a great in the policy-making game. Of course, if Trump does not get re-elected in 2020 and a Democrat wins, every single executive order Trump signed can (and likely will) be overturned. Of the legislation Trump signed so far, none of it was worth a public signing ceremony as are his executive orders.

All in all, the President’s remarks were yawn-inducing because they were similar to every campaign rally speech he gave going back to when he officially launched his presidential campaign in 2015. Other people are more concerned about Trump’s speech. David Gergen of CNN said:

“This was the most divisive speech I have ever heard from a sitting American president,” Gergen said. “Others may disagree about that. He played to his base and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or opposed him, he treated them basically as, ‘I don’t give a damn what you think because you’re frankly like the enemy.’ I thought it was a deeply disturbing speech.”

I don’t agree with the assessment that it’s disturbing. Trump likes to bloviate. Much of his act is nothing but hot air. He’ll savage the media but sit down with the NY Times and the Associated Press. As for his first 100 days, despite all the bragging, there’s not much there.

For Trump, there’s no significant legislation he can point to as a success. He has the lowest approval ratings of any President in his first 100 days since the second World War. His impetuousness and inability to deal with criticism make his Twitter feed a danger zone for his aides and spokespeople who have to defend what he says, and nobody needs reminding of the firestorm he set off with his March 4th tweets about being “tapped” by President Obama.

Honestly, outside his appointment of Neil Gorsuch, there’s nothing Trump’s done to warrant a “rally.” But that’s the President we have, for better or worse.